Year: 2018
Type: other
Abstract: Anecdotal" is often used as a pejorative term in scientific circles, meaning unreliable.In practice it often means isolated, and therefore hard to assess.Think of a new field of science as a large jigsaw puzzle.Pieces are discovered one by one, and at first they are unlikely to fit together to make a picture.Things can look distinctly unpromising, sometimes for decades.But if you can bear the pain of feeling stupid and humiliation of being wrong, anecdotal evidence is the call of the wild, the sunset sign of the undiscovered.Columbus set sail on the basis of anecdotal evidence.The Mayan hieroglyphs were deciphered using anecdotal evidence.Life-saving remedies based on plants, such as aspirin and digitalis, were found by scientists who paid attention to anecdotal evidence.Luca Turin, 2007, The Secret of Scent
Institution: Claflin University
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4254163592